A VICTORIOUS WEEK in the Smallest Bindery in the World

I SAY UNTO YOU THAT I AM A BINDING CHAMPION!!! Despite last week’s demoralizing mold episode and subsequent defeatist post, I shook off the spores and bound VICTORIOUSLY! I made progress on three projects this week. Perhaps you’d like to see photos of my illustrious efforts? BEHOLD, MY ILLUSTRIOUS EFFORTS!

VICTORIOUS BINDING (Project No. 1)
I made a very first mockup for the New Idea that I am working on with Dave Allen. The rough tests we produced before he returned to the states have been sitting in a drawer making me feel bad, and so, LIKE A CHAMPION, I CREATED A BOOK OUT OF THEM WITH MY BARE HANDS. These are the very early stages of design, and just about everything is going to change, but I do think the tall & narrow format of the book suits our aims, which include creating human forms out of data. (more details on all of that later)

Below you can see our starting point for the print tests.

Here are the rough tests, loose on my desk.

and then a few seconds later BEHOLD, A BOOK!

The content below is simply a jumbled assembly rather than a deliberately designed sequence, but it shows our rough intentions.

I’m planning on getting neck-deep into this book very soon, but first I have to clear the decks of older projects. Like, say, this one:

VICTORIOUS BINDING (Project No. 2)
I VICTORIOUSLY made the boxes for three more copies of the deluxe edition of Fond this week, two of which have already sold and need to go to their new homes. The pine cone, the button, and the little yellow car are now all housed in special compartments alongside the book and the prints. These boxes are difficult but hugely satisfying to make. Here is the pine cone box in an early stage:

The completed box trays with their books inside, ready to be adhered to cases:

Completed boxes closed:

Opened:

AND BEHOLD!!!! Here they are opened just a little more:

Six out of ten of these deluxe copies are finished. I’m going to shift gears this week and get back to binding copies of the standard edition of the book. The total edition size is 75 copies and I’d like to push through and bind them all in the next couple of months. LIKE A CHAMPION!

VICTORIOUS BINDING (Project No. 3)
Why make one book when you can make ten? Because I am a VICTORIOUS BINDING CHAMPION and an multiples addict, I am editioning the book I created for the Ideation by Chance exhibition at the Seager Gray Gallery in California. Two more copies (for a grand total of three out of ten) are now complete.

This book is letterpress printed, hand drawn, folded and waxed. Every step must be repeated carefully and identically. I VICTORIOUSLY made a series of templates to help me accomplish this.

Below you can see a finished copy of the project. I will soon be making this book available for purchase, stay tuned for information.

Yes, things are feeling a little more upbeat over here this week . More binding and some teaching at the London Centre for Book Arts coming up in the next few days. And soon. . . a printing press? Watch this space. (BEHOLD, THIS SPACE!!!)